Cosatu is to meet leaders of public service unions on Friday May 11 to put the final touches to a programme of protest action that is likely to climax in the third state-sector pay strike in less than a decade.
Unions in the public service bargaining chamber have declared a formal dispute over pay, and a second round of conciliation failed this week, providing the all-clear for a ‘protected†strike.
The unions have not budged from their original demand for a 12% across the board rise, while government negotiators have stuck fast on 6% for the past three weeks.
The government has also rejected demands for improved housing and medical benefits, the reduction of salary notches and the creation and filling of all vacant public service posts.
On Friday, the union bloc is expected to give the public service department the required notice of the intention to strike.
Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said: ‘The indication we are getting from workers is that the strike is now inevitable.
‘The good thing about this round of negotiations is that public service workers are united, despite the historical ideological differences, to fight for better salaries and condition of work.â€
Cosatu will present a detailed programme of action to non-Cosatu unions at Friday’s meeting, including a month of mass demonstrations that will culminate in a nationwide strike.
Fikile Majola, general secretary of Cosatu’s health workers’ affiliate, Nehawu, said details of the programme of action, including the date of the planned strike, would be made public after the meeting.
‘It’s clear that we won’t be able to find each other soon. The only concern we have now is how to ensure that we pull off the most effective strike,†said Majola.
He said Nehawu had been working hard to mobilise workers in essential services, such as nurses and doctors, to join the strike. ‘Our discussion with the police union, Popcru, indicates that its members, which include police officers and prison warders, are ready to join the strike,†said Majola.
Cosatu’s teachers’ affiliate, Sadtu, has also announced its intention to strike. Eliam Biyela, the executive director of the National Teachers Union (Natu), affiliated to the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa), added that there was consensus among all Natu’s members ‘that a strike is the only way to goâ€.
Mannie de Clercu of the Public Service Association, with more than 200 000 workers in the state sector, said the feedback from members was that they favoured strike action.
‘There’s no way our members can accept the government’s current 6% offer. Business Unity South Africa estimates current settlement levels in industry at between 7% and 9%.
‘Public servants received an average 5,3% over the past three years, while the industry average has been 7%. In other words, salaries of public servants have fallen behind by 11,5% since 1996. Is easy for us to justify our 12% demand,†said De Clercu.
Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said last Friday the 12% increase demanded by the unions would double this year’s state wage bill to R198-billion. The government says its 6% offer amounts to R9,3-billion.
It warned that the no work no pay rule would apply to all strikers. Education Director General ÂDuncan Hindle said striking teachers would lose about R70-million a day in Âsalaries.
Meanwhile, Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils’s office this week said it was investigating claims by Sadtu that some of its members have been intimidated by National Intelligence Agency (NIA) officials.
Sadtu claimed in a statement this week that NIA operatives had Âvisited its offices in the Northern Cape to question officials about the pending public sector strike.